I never meant to stay this long in Kochi.
When I first landed here from Pune, I thought it’d be a two-year stint — long enough to add weight to my resume, short enough to keep homesickness at bay. But Infopark had its own plans for me.
The office was so strange to me: glass walls catching the monsoon light, cafeterias buzzing with Malayalam, and the smell of tea and coffee always lingering. My MNC promised global projects and local warmth, and to be honest, it delivered. Yet in the first few weeks, I felt like a foreign body in a dream that wasn’t mine.
Lunch breaks were the hardest. My colleagues spoke fast, dipped into regional jokes, swapped weekend beach stories, and even as they tried to include me, I often nodded, smiled, and stayed politely distant. Until one Friday, someone asked if I’d ever had beef fry from a toddy shop.
That broke something open.
What followed was a slow unraveling of my assumptions. Weekends turned into waterfall treks, boat rides, and endless debates over Malabar biriyani vs. Hyderabadi. I started picking up Malayalam phrases, not because I had to — but because I wanted to laugh at the jokes in real time.
Work was demanding, of course. My team handled backend architecture for a US-based fintech giant, and nights stretched long with sprint deadlines. But there was camaraderie — the kind where someone passes you a homemade payasam during a code review, or where your boss tells you to log off at 6 and catch a Kathakali show.
And then came the Onam celebration at work.
They dressed me in a kasavu saree, taught me how to arrange pookalam, and roped me into a spirited tug-of-war with the QA team. I don’t remember the score — I just remember laughing until my cheeks ached.
Now, three years in, I sometimes surprise myself. I crave kappa and fish curry. I bargain in Malayalam at the vegetable market. Now I consider Kochi as my sweet second home. Yet, every time I video call my parents and hear their Marathi lullabies in the background, something small and quiet pulls at me.
I don’t know if I’ll stay here in Kochi forever. But Infopark — this little orbit of tech and tradition — has shown me that sometimes, belonging sneaks up on you in the form of shared deadlines and shared laughter.
And for now, that’s enough.
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